The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 35 – Part 5

Zhao Min knew that Zhang Wuji's strike had sealed the man's acupoints by borrowing his own force, but the borrowed strength was far too slight to do more than leave his limbs numb for a time. It would not rob him of the power to move, and within half a shichen¹ the sealed acupoints would release of their own accord. Once that happened, there would be trouble again. She also had many things to question him about, and could not simply take his life. She said, “This gentleman has sealed your death acupoint.² Draw a breath for me. Does the left side of your chest ache dully beneath the ribs?”

The man drew a breath as she instructed and indeed felt a sharp soreness along several ribs on his left side. In truth this was merely the natural consequence of qi and blood obstructed at the acupoints. The man did not know that, and his wailing grew all the more piteous.

Zhao Min said, “You want me to spare your life? You will need a golden needle to unseal the death acupoint first. That would be far too troublesome.”

The man kowtowed. “You must trouble yourself just this once, lady. You have saved my life. I will serve you as an ox or a horse for the rest of my days.”

Zhao Min gave a dimpled smile. “You are the first jianghu³ man of your sort I have ever seen. Very well. Go and fetch me a brick.”

The man answered eagerly, “Yes, yes!” He stumbled out into the courtyard and picked up a brick.

Zhang Wuji asked in a low voice, “What is the brick for?”

Zhao Min smiled. “The mountain hermit has his own stratagem.”

The man carried the brick back into the hall and stood at respectful attention. Zhao Min drew a golden hairpin from her hair, aimed the tip at his Quepen acupoint on the shoulder, and said, “First I will use the golden needle to clear the upper passages, lest the death acupoint’s qi surge into your brain. Once that happens, there will be no saving you. But whether this gentleman is willing to spare your life is another matter.”

The man looked at Zhang Wuji, his eyes full of pleading. Zhang Wuji gave a nod. The man was overjoyed. “This lord has agreed. Please be quick, lady.”

Zhao Min said, “Tell me, are you afraid of pain?”

“I am only afraid of death, lady. Not of pain.”

“Excellent. Strike the tail of the hairpin once with the brick.”

The man thought a hairpin driven into the shoulder was no more than a flesh wound and did not so much as flinch. He raised the brick and brought it down on the end of the pin. The golden needle slid into the Quepen acupoint. Instead of pain, the man felt a wave of comfort wash through him, and his confidence in Zhao Min grew. He thanked her without pause.

Zhao Min told him to draw out the needle, then pricked him in turn at Hunmen, Pohu, Tianzhu, Kufang, and three or four other acupoints in the same manner, seven or eight in all. Zhang Wuji smiled faintly and said, “Enough, enough.” He rose to his feet. He knew that once these acupoints had been pricked so many times, if the man were to flee the temple and run at full speed, the injuries would flare at once and seal his fate.

Zhao Min said, “Go and fetch two basins of water for us to wash our faces, then cook a meal. If you wish to die, you may put poison in the food. The three of us will perish together.”

The man said, “I would not dare. I would not dare!”

From that moment on, Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min had acquired a servant. Zhao Min asked his name. The man’s surname was Shou and his given name Nanshan. His nickname among jianghu acquaintances was Boundless Longevity,⁴ a jest at his habit of shrinking from every fight and the certainty that nobody would ever bother to kill him. Though he had followed a band of greenwood heroes in taking Yuanzhen⁵ as his shifu, Yuanzhen had found his root and bone too poor and his disposition too craven to warrant teaching him any real martial art, assigning him instead to run errands. Shou Nanshan, his acupoints pricked but his strength intact, served Zhao Min with tireless devotion. He dragged the nine corpses into the rear garden and buried them, then hauled water and scrubbed the bloodstains from the temple floors. Curiously, though his martial arts were worthless, his skill in the kitchen ranked a cut above mediocre, and the dishes he prepared drew generous praise from Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min.

When all was in order, the two questioned him at length about the Lion-Slaying Heroes’ Assembly.⁶ Shou Nanshan concealed nothing, though those about him had held him in such low regard that much had never reached his ears. He knew only that the abbot of Shaolin Monastery,⁷ Great Master Kongwen,⁸ had charged Yuanzhen with presiding over the assembly. Kongwen and Kongzhi, two Divine Monks, were sending out heroes’ invitations⁹ far and wide, summoning the heroes and brave men of every faction and guild in the world to gather at Shaolin Monastery on the Double Ninth Festival¹⁰ to discuss matters of great import.

Zhang Wuji asked to see the heroes’ invitation. It was a summons to Fuchenzi, Gusongzi, Guizangzi and the other swordsmen of the Dian Canghai School in Yunnan. The Dian Canghai swordsmen had been renowned for many years, but they lived in seclusion in the south of Yunnan, rarely showed their faces, and had little dealings with the wulin¹¹ of the Central Plains. That the Shaolin Order had reached even them showed how vast the guest list must be and how grand the scale of the assembly. The Shaolin Order led the wulin, and with Kongwen and Kongzhi issuing the invitations in person, Zhang Wuji judged that every recipient would set aside his own affairs and attend.

He saw that the invitation bore only a handful of words: You are respectfully invited to honour Shaolin Monastery with your presence on the Double Ninth Festival and join the heroes of the realm in ten days of wine and fellowship, to pay our respects to the Patriarch and to deliberate upon the great affairs of the wulin. There was no mention of “lion-slaying” at all. He asked, “Why did Qin the Fifth call it the Lion-Slaying Heroes’ Assembly?”

Shou Nanshan’s face brightened with pride. “What the lord does not know is that my shifu has captured a person of no small renown, one called Xie Xun the Golden Haired Lion King.¹² Our Shaolin Order is about to win great glory before all the heroes of the world. We will slaughter this golden lion in public, and so the assembly takes its name.”

Zhang Wuji suppressed his fury and asked, “What sort of man is this Golden Haired Lion King? Have you seen him yourself? How did your shifu capture him? Where is he held now?”

Shou Nanshan said, “That Golden Haired Lion King, hmph, he is truly fearsome beyond compare. A full two times my height, his arms thicker than my thighs. Never mind the rest, just take those eyes of his, gleaming like steel, fixing on you in a glare, and your very soul flies out of your body. You would kowtow and beg for mercy before a single blow was struck.”

Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min exchanged a glance. Shou Nanshan went on, “My shifu fought him for seven days and seven nights without victory or defeat. Then my shifu grew angry and unleashed the Dragon-Subduing Tiger-Vanquishing Skill,¹³ which shakes the world, and at last subdued him. The Golden Haired Lion King is locked in a great iron cage in the Mahavira Hall of our monastery, bound with seven or eight chains of pure steel.”

Zhang Wuji’s anger rose with every word. He barked, “If you are going to answer, speak the truth. Talk such nonsense and I will take your wretched life. The Golden Haired Lion King, Xie daxia,¹⁴ is blind. What steel-gleaming eyes are you speaking of?”

Shou Nanshan’s boast was punctured on the spot. “Yes, yes! I must have seen him wrongly.”

“Have you even laid eyes on him? Tell me what Xie daxia looks like.”

Shou Nanshan had in fact never seen Xie Xun at all. He knew that further boasting would cost him his life. “I would not dare deceive you. I only heard about it from my shixiong.¹⁵”

Zhang Wuji’s only wish was to discover where Xie Xun was imprisoned, but no matter how he pressed, Shou Nanshan truly did not know. He reasoned that so grave a secret would never be entrusted to a creature of so little account, and let the matter rest. The Double Ninth Festival was still more than two months away. There was time enough, once his own injuries had healed, to go to his rescue.

The three of them passed several days in the Nation-Protecting Monastery in perfect safety. No one came from Shaolin Monastery to issue orders or errands. By the eighth day Zhao Min’s wounds had healed seven or eight parts in ten, and Zhang Wuji’s zhenqi¹⁶ was flowing through his limbs once more, restoring their strength. Had an enemy come at that moment, a brief stand or a flight would have posed no difficulty. Shou Nanshan waited on them with single-minded devotion, daring not harbour the slightest disloyalty.

Zhao Min laughed, “Boundless Longevity, you will never make a martial artist, but you would be a first-rate steward.”

Shou Nanshan was delighted. “You speak well, lady. Shall I become your steward then?”

Zhao Min laughed. “I would not dare presume.”

Day after day Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min ate Shou Nanshan’s carefully prepared dishes, and the Nation-Protecting Monastery took on an air of quiet contentment. Another ten days passed, and the two had fully recovered their strength. Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min began to discuss how they might rescue Xie Xun.

Zhao Min said, “The best plan would have been to seal Boundless Longevity’s death acupoint in earnest and send him back to Shaolin Monastery as a spy. But the man is too great a coward. He would give himself away and ruin everything. Instead, let us go to the foot of Shaoshi Mountain and act as the situation demands. But we must change our appearance first.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Disguised as what? Shall I shave my head and become a monk, and you a nun?”

A faint flush crossed Zhao Min’s face. She spat, “Hmph! Only you would think of that. A young monk trotting about with a young nun, what sort of spectacle would that be?”

Zhang Wuji laughed. “Then let us play a pair of country husband and wife, tilling the fields and chopping firewood at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain.”

Zhao Min smiled. “Could we not be brother and sister? If we pose as man and wife and Zhou guniang sees us,¹⁷ I will have five more finger-holes punched into this left shoulder of mine.”

Zhang Wuji smiled as well and pressed the matter no further. He questioned Shou Nanshan carefully on the layout of Shaolin Monastery’s every hall and courtyard, then said, “The death acupoints I sealed in you have all been released. You may go.”

Zhao Min said gravely, “Henceforth you must live your life in the south. The moment you so much as see snow or ice, you will die. Travel south at once. The hotter the place you settle, the better. If you catch so much as a chill of wind or a cough, you will be in gravest danger.”

Shou Nanshan believed every word. He bowed and took his leave of the two, and the moment he was outside the temple he set off due south. He did indeed spend the rest of his days in Lingnan, tending his health with the utmost care and never allowing himself so much as a cold, until he died in the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty.¹⁸ Though he did not live to a truly boundless age, he nonetheless enjoyed a long life.

After he had gone far enough, Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min carefully erased every trace of their stay in the temple. They walked twenty li¹⁹ and bought a set of farmer’s clothes, man’s and woman’s, from a household. In a wild place they changed, buried their old garments, and continued northwest past Dengfeng, making their way at a leisurely pace to the foot of Shaoshi Mountain.

When they were seven or eight li from Shaolin Monastery, they had already met three parties of the monastery’s monks on the road. Zhao Min said, “We cannot go any further.” Beside the mountain path stood two thatched cottages with a vegetable patch in front. An old farmer was watering his crops. “Let us ask to lodge there.”

Zhang Wuji stepped forward, offered a greeting, and said, “Old sir, might we trouble you for a bowl of water? My sister and I have walked far and are weary.”

The old farmer took no notice, as though he had not heard, and went on ladling dung-water over the roots of his vegetables. Zhang Wuji repeated his request. The old man still ignored him.

The thatched gate creaked open. A white-haired old woman stepped out, smiling. “My husband is deaf and dumb. What may I help you with?”

Zhang Wuji said, “My sister cannot walk another step. We hoped for a bowl of water.”

The old woman said, “Come in, then.”

Footnotes

1. 时辰 – shíchén. A shichen is one of the twelve two-hour periods into which the traditional Chinese day is divided. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 死穴 – sǐxué. A lethal acupoint. Sealing certain acupoints with neili can stop the heart or cause fatal internal damage; the death acupoint is among the most dangerous. ↩

3. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 万寿无疆 – wànshòu wújiāng. Literally boundless longevity, ten thousand years of life without end. An imperial blessing turned ironic nickname. ↩

5. 圆真 – Yuánzhēn. His dharma name meaning ‘Round Truth’. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 屠狮英雄会 – túshī yīngxióng huì. The Lion-Slaying Heroes’ Assembly. A grand gathering at Shaolin Monastery at which Xie Xun is to be publicly executed. ↩

7. 少林寺 – Shàolín Sì. Shaolin Monastery, the great Buddhist monastery on Shaoshi Mountain in Henan, seat of the Shaolin Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 大师 – dàshī. Great Master, an honorific title for a monk of high virtue and learning. ↩

9. 英雄帖 – yīngxióng tiě. Heroes’ invitation, a formal summons issued to martial artists across the jianghu for a great assembly or tournament. ↩

10. 重阳节 – chóngyáng jié. The Double Ninth Festival, held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, a traditional day for climbing heights and gathering. ↩

11. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest, the community of martial artists and their affairs. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. His name meaning ‘Gratitude’ or ‘Retreat’. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 擒龙伏虎功 – qín lóng fú hǔ gōng. Dragon-Subduing Tiger-Vanquishing Skill, a formidable Shaolin martial art. ↩

14. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a renowned martial artist of great prowess and virtue. ↩

15. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple, one who entered the same shifu’s door earlier. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 真气 – zhēnqì. True qi, the refined qi generated through internal cultivation and circulating through the meridians. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 周姑娘 – Zhōu gūniang. A respectful address for a young woman surnamed Zhou. ↩

18. 明朝 – Míng Cháo. The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), which overthrew Mongol rule and restored Han-Chinese sovereignty. ↩

19. 里 – lǐ. A Chinese unit of distance, approximately one-third of a mile or five hundred metres. ↩